This is the official missionary page for Elder Hyrum Ruby serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the California Ventura area.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Exchanges and Telemarketers

This week has been crazy too. We just haven't been able to get into a regular routine. On Wednesday I slept at the Paso 1st Ward Elder's apartment (Elders Elkington and Parkinson) because Elder Walker was invited to MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) in Oxnard that would be all day on Thursday. I had a good day with those two. One of the members in the 1st ward asked if we could come help him build 750 foot of fence on his little farm! I felt right at home. There were dogs and horses and the house they lived in reminded me of many of the small houses that I'd been to after brandings in Wyoming.

Then on Saturday, I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went to SLO (San Louis Obisibo) with Elder Jackson while Elder Walker stayed here with 7'3" Elder Hamson. (I've always thought that being tall has a lot of advantages, but poor Elder Hamson. He had a custom bike for his height, he has to duck down to shower, everyone askes how tall he is and it's awkward to give him hugs because my face is at his belly button. No Joke!) haha The exchange went well. The Zone Leaders cover the YSA (Young Single Adult) ward in the college town (the college is Cal Poly) We saw a lot younger faces than I am used to in Paso. It was good. A recent convert named Isabell had gone to the temple that day for the first time to do baptisms for the dead. She loved it! We had a lesson with her and talked about the temple and then patriarchial blessings. We helped her understand what a patriarchial blessing was and she is excited to get hers. She told us that she can't understand how she got through life without the gospel before. She is awesome, solid. So, the exchange went well.

The experience I wrote about crossing the street was pretty funny. I was almost sarcastic about meeting someone, but God was going to teach us a lesson. I had to laugh and be in awe at God's myserious ways.

The two investigators that we had baptism dates for (Tiana and Teresa) are not going to happen on those dates :( Tiana (who we are teaching with her dad) isn't making her date because of her dad's work schedule. The next day we could meet with them is the 22nd, so we will just have to wait. Maybe her baptism could be my birthday present? Hyrum's birthday is December 7th. Teresa still has the shingles (or so she claims) and has not been able to attend church. We are still trying to recognize and address her real concern. She has met with missionaries for two years and has never gotten baptized. We are working on finding that need and getting her to church.

Elder Walker and I are getting along fine. We are both waiting for everything to get back to normal (schedule-wise) so that we can really focus on Paso Robles 2nd Ward. The members are good. I love coming to church and going to their homes for dinner.

The weather sounds crazy! It's so nice here. Sometime I might need some gloves so that I don't shake people's hands with a cold hand.

Oh! Just now we got a call by someone in Florida that told us we were randomly selected to get $800,000 and we didn't need to pay taxes on it! Woohoo! Guess what I said? I said, "You know, we have something more valuable than that and that is the Book Of Mormon. Have you heard of the Book of Mormon?" He hung up, but I felt pretty good about it, and I didn't have to hang up on the guy. Score! :) haha

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